


Crimson Streets

by kinkiestdaddy



Category: Gugudan (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Blood Drinking, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, Mild Smut, Non-Graphic Smut, not really it's just part of the story lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-09-06 05:19:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8736340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinkiestdaddy/pseuds/kinkiestdaddy
Summary: Xiening really didn't know what she was getting into when she walked into Club Vampire.





	

While walking down the dark streets of Hongdae, 11:37 pm and autumn air crisp against her tongue, Xiening notices a small sign at the very top of one of the buildings that says “Club Vampire” in neon red font. Normally Xiening wouldn’t be so far from the university she’s studying at (about an hour away by public trans), but she felt like stretching her wings. Maybe a club with the word “vampire” in the name should be something she avoids, but honestly what’s the worst it could have? People with plastic teeth in crazy capes and chalky white makeup?

Against what’s probably her better judgement, Xiening loads herself into the tiny elevator and hits the button for the top floor labeled “Club Vampire”. When she gets off and starts moving towards the receptionist, she actually fairly surprised by how normal she seems, black hair, dark clothing, and red lips. After paying her entrance fee and moving onto the main dance floor, Xiening notices others wearing much the same style. It’s not exactly something most people would wear normally on the streets, but it’s not the Hollywood-esque attire she was quite imagining either.

Letting out a small breath, Xiening moves towards the bar where a man in a tight white blouse tucked into tight black pants is serving drinks of a bright red.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you before. What would you like to drink? We can make really anything. I’ll add red dye to it if you want me to,” the bartender laughs, “but our most popular is obviously the bloody mary.”

“I’ll just have a cosmopolitan, thank you,” Xiening replies, and she’s almost not sure that the bartender heard her until the drink is in her hands.

A minute or so passes before she hears the bartender ask, “Are you here for the ceremony tonight?”

Ceremony? Like… for Halloween? Xiening’s not completely out of the loop, she knows Halloween is coming, so it must be good business for a club like this. “Ummm, I don’t know? Do you know when it is? I’m sorry, I’m an exchange student, my Korean isn’t the greatest.”

“Oh no, it’s fine don’t worry, we get a lot of foreigners here,” the bartender reassures. “I just noticed that you had the red wristband on. It’s in the back room in about 5 minutes. We have them every Saturday night/Sunday morning, you know.”

Red wristband? What is he talking about? Xiening looks around the room and notices that most everyone here is only wearing a black wristband. Thinking back to when she payed, Xiening did choose the most expensive option, a 20,000 won fee rather than the 7,000 won alternative, but she wasn’t exactly sure what that even meant. But she sure as hell did know she wasn’t going to let 13,000 won go to waste.

Xiening silently thanks the bartender with a slight bow before moving towards the room pointed out before. It has no name, but there is a rather intimidating looking man in a suit standing in front of the door. She shows him her wristband before he opens the door and lets her in.

There are about 30 seat in five rows facing a small platform at the front of the room. The only light provided in the space are candles providing a dim flicker over the space. Xiening chooses one of the seats in the back of the room near the door in case either a fire starts or she needs to run out of the room for whatever reason. But really, it’s just because it was either the back seat or one in the front, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to gather the attention of everyone else in the room by waltzing her way up.

True to the man’s word, the show starts about 5 minutes later, precisely at midnight. About three people come out fairly scantily clothed, and any clothes that are adorning their body are black and made of leather. One is a girl with bleached hair curled pig tails, eyes rimmed darkly with eyeliner but no lipstick on. The other two are men, one fairly thin looking and the other with slightly more defined muscles, and both of them are wearing eyeliner as well.

“Welcome, everyone, to our weekly blood ceremony!” the blonde girl starts. Xiening’s not quite sure, but she’s pretty sure she misheard. Blood ceremony? It’s probably rain ceremony. *rain is 비 (bi, pronounced similar to bee) and blood is 피 (pi, pronounced similar to pee) and could be easily mistaken “Many of you are familiar faces, but as always, especially around this time of the year, there are a few who are fresh-meat!” she taunts, gaze shifting sharply between Xiening and a few other people in the room. Everyone else laughs, so Xiening tries to let out her own, but she not quite sure exactly what’s so funny. “Don’t be scared though. We won’t eat you. Yet.” The girl winks before continuing on. “We’ll start with the adornment of feathers with this week being myself, Sara, and then Yujin will offer himself as the official donor of tonight. Kang will be assisting us throughout. Finally, you may all choose to join in, or simply observe. Though if you are a first-timer, I would recommend not drinking too much if you do want a taste. You can get sick.”

Xiening just continues to watch on as the candles at the back of the room are blown out, making the front of the room appear much brighter by comparison. However, Xiening is not at all prepared for what she sees next. Sara stands there, arms out to the side as the two men begin to stab her arms with feather-ended needles. At first Sara winces and lets out a gasp, but appears to get high off the pain as a thin trail of blood makes its way down her arms, most of it obviously being held in by the needles. It’s at this point that Xiening realizes she doesn’t know what the fuck she’s doing here and should probably leave, but she remains paralyzed in her seat. Whether it’s due to shock, fear, or curiosity, she doesn’t know, but she can’t. Move. Her eyes remain locked on the show.

A few minutes later, Sara’s entire arms both have a string of needle-kept feathers down them and it makes her appear as if she had wings. If the blood wasn’t so unsettling, Xiening would even go so far as saying she’s beautiful, any pieces of blonde hair close enough to brush against her body being caught by a thin sheen of sweat. Her pupils are dilated, and mouth hung open in pain? Pleasure? Xiening can’t really tell at this point, as the two mix together on Sara’s face.

After the blonde is finished with her performance, the slender male, Yujin, is brought to the center of the “stage”. He stands shirtless while Kang approached him with a tray of silver bits on it. Kang pierces Yujin’s skin, the needles large with an opening at the end. Immediately, blood begins to trickle out of the open needle, slithering its way down his arm until it forms droplets above a strategically placed metal goblet.  Kang continues to his handiwork until both of Yujin’s arms are covered in streams of blood. They meant blood. Not rain. Xiening is completely mortified, and the mortification grows as both Kang and Sara cover their fingers with blood before licking them clean, not a drop left.

Several others from the crowd also partake, either copying as Sara and Kang did, tasting with their fingers, or running their tongues directly across Yujin’s skin. However, the person who catches her attention more than anyone is a girl with long, dark, and straight brown hair. She’s dressed fairly normally, black dress ending in a fringe of frills half-way down her thighs but hugging up the rest of her body, being held up by two straps. The front doesn’t dip low, almost following the contour of her clavicles, but the back dips low down to her mid-back covered mostly by her hair. Black wedge platforms cause the seemingly already tall girl to tower over every women, and even some men, in the room.

She’s wearing little to no makeup, but when she grabs one of the goblets and begins drinking the collected blood, a slight red tint is left on her lips. Her tongue slides carefully across her lips, and Xiening finds herself following its path. Gracefully, the girl finishes the glass, she places the goblet back in place, though the needles have been removed from Yujin. Xiening could have sworn he would faint from blood-loss a right before they did so.

Xiening’s broken from her thoughts as the girl exits the room. It’s then that she realizes that a couple others had stood up to leave as well, so she also takes this opportunity to get the hell out of there. Once she’s made her way through the club, down the elevator, and onto the streets, the chill of autumn breaks her almost trance-like state, and her legs give out. She takes a second or two, sitting on the cold (and probably absolutely disgusting) street while she just tries to process what she just witnessed. Was that even legal? Probably not, considering you needed a medical license to give tattoos in Korea. Xiening prides herself in not “judging a book by its cover”, but she highly doubts that these people got a medical license just to do… whatever in the hell that just was.

Finally gaining the courage to trust her still wobbly legs, Xiening makes her way to the nearest subway and takes it back to her dorm at Ewha University. Times like these make her glad she has a single dorm room, because as soon as she enters the room, she makes a bee-line for the bathroom before retching up the bitter concoction of cosmopolitan and stomach acid. That night, she lays in bed staring up at the ceiling, unable to get the vision of the girl drinking an entire goblet of blood. Xiening’s sure the way just a bit of blood remained on her lips, and even that she gladly lapped up, will haunt her for the rest of her life. Eventually, sleep pulls heavily on her limbs until she’s falling into a deep sleep, not waking until the next morning.

⏃  ⏃  ⏃  ⏃

Even after two weeks, Xiening can’t forget about the girl with blood on her lips, which is what causes her to do what she swore she’d never do: find her way back at Club Vampire. This time she knows what she’s doing, places the exact change for both entrance and the ceremony, and begins to move towards the back. Once she’s entered the room, her eyes scan those who’ve already entered. The girl isn’t here. Xiening chooses her seat in the back again, deciding to watch those who continue to enter. She should leave. She _knows_ she should leave. Accept that the girl isn’t there, and move on to hopefully forget her. But something in her forces her to stay.

Just as her gut had told her, a few minutes later the girl walks in and makes her way to her seat in the front of the room, this time wearing a red dress covered in black lace. A similar series of events occurs, the back candles are blown out followed by the introduction (two new girls, but Kang is still there), feather adornment, and blood ceremony. And just like last time, the girl drinks the goblet, except this time Xiening can catches the light off of her teeth. Her two canines are larger and more pointed than normal human canines, and Xiening knows that it should freak her out, but it intrigues her even more.

Same as before, the girl leaves after finishing her drink, but this time Xiening follows after her out the door, albeit slightly belatedly while she tries to figure out how brains move limbs. Once she catches up to the girl, she reaches out and grabs her arm.

The girl’s eyes are wide in shock as she turns around to see who the fuck is touching her before she mutters out a small “you”.

Xiening might not be the best at Korean, made only worse by the fact that she forgot anything she might have prepared to say to the girl, but even she feels stupid when she replies with her own “me”.  They both stand there mildly in shock before Xiening manages to start speaking again. “I… I saw you! This time and the last time I was here. And I just… I wanted to know if I could maybe… Ask you some questions!” Xiening tries her hardest to smile.

And the girl laughs. Not in a mean or teasing way, but in a genuine way that has her face brighten and her teeth showing, not a hint of red left as Xiening imagined there would be. And Xiening’s fucked, because the girl is so pretty and she was _not_ expecting blood girl to be so pretty.

Letting out a couple more laughs, she apologizes, “I’m sorry for laughing, but when I saw you, I honestly didn’t know what you wanted but… I don’t know, the way you were staring me down so intently earlier I thought for sure it wouldn’t be good, but you only want me to answer questions!” She tries even hard to keep her laughs in, and Xiening’s face falls and confusion washes over her features. “Oh, but yeah, I’d be down to answer any questions, but I don’t think this is the right time or place. Would tomorrow maybe around 2pm be okay?”

It takes Xiening a second to process everything the girl has said. “Uh… Yeah! Yes, tomorrow is good, I am free! Where were you thinking?”

“I can text you the details tomorrow morning. Here,” the girl unlocks her phone and hands it to Xiening with the “new contact” screen up, “add your number, and text yourself so you can have mine too.”

Xiening does as instructed, adding her name, number, and even a selfie to the contact (just in case the girl forgets what she looks like) before sending her own number “me” via the girl’s phone. With her phone back in her hand.

“Xiening,” the girl looks over the contact and smiles gently. “My nickname is Soyee, by the way. So-yee, that way you can add a name to my number,” and Xiening does just that. “You’re so cute when you smile, I hope I get to see it again tomorrow. I’ll text you, remember! And if I forget, you have my number.”

Xiening feels her cheeks heat up as the girl, Soyee, leaves down the elevator. Xiening stumbles her way over to the bar and orders a cranberry vodka spritzer that she downs faster than she normally would before also taking her leave. Before she knows it, Xiening’s back in her dorm laying down in bed, smiling up at the contact titled “Soyee”.

⏃  ⏃  ⏃  ⏃

A “ding” coming from Xiening’s phone wakes her up. She clicks her phone to life and it reads 8:57 in large white numbers with the text notification beneath titled “Soyee”. As expected, the message provides a confirmation of the time and a café that’s only a few minutes’ walk from Xiening’s own dorm. At first she’s a little freaked by how close it is considering the distance from the club, but she figures there’s not actually any way Soyee could actually know where she lives yet. Unless Soyee followed her home, but she pushes that thought waaaay to the back of her head, because there’s got to be some level of trust, even if she is essentially a stranger.

So for the rest of the morning, Xiening eats a light breakfast (apple and tea) just to stave off hunger pains until her “coffee date” (not really a date) with blood girl, and then lazes around and catches up on the latest episodes of Scholar Who Walks the Night. About an hour before she has to leave, she realizes that she needed to start getting ready like… ten minutes ago. She foregoes any major styling, opting for braids and a bandana coupled with a black t-shirt and jacket with the necklace she loves so much, a large silver plate hanging from black ropes. Her makeup is kept simple with red lips as the point.

When she arrives, she expects to see a version of Soyee similar to what she saw at the night club: formfitting dresses revealing expansions of curved back or tempting lace. What she finds waiting for her up at the front of the café is a girl in a modest black sailor style dress topped with an actually very modern black hat and red lip tint. She’s still mostly black and red, but the arrangement seems much tamer, giving the girl and almost innocent aura as if she doesn’t leisurely sip blood from goblets of sketchy vampire clubs in her free-time.

For this reason, she almost decides she has the wrong person, until Soyee, in the same smooth and deep voice from the night before, calls after her.

“Xiening! You came, thank goodness! I mean you still had like five minutes, but I’m always nervous about these things.” And there it is again, the laugh and smile that always manages to shock Xiening. “I already reserved us a closed off booth, so you don’t have to worry about people ease dropping on whatever it is you need to ask.”

“Oh… um, thank you. Do we order here?”

“Yeah! What do you want? I can order it, I come here often,” Soyee offers.

“I’ll just have a vanilla latte and a blueberry muffin, please.”

“Of course, I’ll go order it for you.” And Soyee just walks up to the counter and places the order that Xiening easily could have, but is still grateful for Soyee offering. When she comes back she tell Xiening, “They’ll bring it to our table for us when it’s ready, so we can go sit down.”

Once they’re seated in the closed off, but still rather spacious, booth, Soyee is actually the first one to ask questions. “So, your name is Xiening? That’s really unique. You must be Chinese then?”

“Ah, yes, I’m a Chinese foreign exchange student at Ewha University. It’s actually just a couple minutes away,” Xiening let’s out timidly, aware that Soyee is still a stranger and probably doesn’t need to know too much.

However, shock surfaces to Soyee’s features. “Oh? You attend Ewha? Huh, me too! I’m a vocal performance major!”

Now it’s Xiening’s turn to look surprised. So Soyee really wasn’t a stalker. She was just choosing a place close to campus, where she also lives… Well. That’s a relief.

“What are you studying, Xiening?” Xiening thinks Soyee’s issues pronouncing her name are cute. She wonders if Soyee also thinks Xiening’s patchy Korean is cute. “Xiening?”

“Major! Yes, I am a dance major.”

Soyee’s eyes brighten up. “Wow, that’s amazing! I could never do dancing! My friends call me a sloth. It’s kind of a thing because I’m just a little bit lazy,” and Soyee’s letting out that soft and addicting laugh again.

Before Xiening can even catch herself, she accidentally says, “You look more like a princess right now than a sloth-“ and Xiening clasps her hands over her mouth in attempt from more unintentional confessions.

“Ah, don’t say things that tempt me like that,” smile still on her face, fixing her hair so that all of her long strands fall onto her back. “It might not be in my best interest to tell you, but you seem fairly open-minded. But I’m gay.” No matter what she’s saying, she’s always smiling.

A waitress is knocking on their closed off area, interrupting Xiening’s thoughts before they can even begin. “Two vanilla lattes, a blueberry muffin, and a spinach salad with raspberry vinaigrette?”

Soyee directs the waitress, “I have the salad and she has the muffins,” and they both have their orders in front of them. Xiening can’t help but compare her choice of food to Soyee’s before Soyee is asking again, “What was it that you wanted to meet about again?”

Xiening takes a deep breath, gathering her courage before sighing out, “I wanted to know why you drink blood.”

Honestly, Xiening was expecting a more surprised, maybe even upset expression, but Soyee just nods and hums in mild understanding. “Well… It’s different for everyone, but for me I guess just because… I like it? I don’t know, it’s hard to explain… I kind of feel this energy enter me when I drink it.” Soyee looks up to study Xiening’s face and laughing again. “You must think I’m psychotic.”

“No! No, I just don’t get it. But I want to understand,” Xiening tries to explain, but her Korean still isn’t good enough to say exactly what she wants to, and it’s already becoming a bit frustrating.

“I can just continue to talk, if that’s what you’d like,” Soyee offers. Xiening just nods her head in response, not quite trusting her mouth.

“It really started back in high school I guess. If any of this gets too graphic or too much, just tell me, okay?” Xiening nods. “Good. Okay. The first time I ever tasted another person’s blood, it was my best friend’s in high school. We were having a sleep-over and it may or may not have gotten a little erotic. Long-story short, I ate her out while she was on her period and it wasn’t my first go at eating someone out, but it was the first time doing it with blood involved. I knew I wouldn’t exactly mind, I mean I licked my own cuts when I was growing up despite my mom scolding me, but I didn’t expect to… enjoy it, I guess.” Soyee finally looks up and sees that Xiening’s eyes are wide with shock and she seems at least a couple shades paler. “Oh my god! I didn’t mean- I mean I probably shouldn’t have told you about my gay experiences so in-depth that’s so weird of me but I didn’t know how else to-“

“No!” Xiening interjects. “It’s not because you’re gay- I’m gay too- it’s just that I’m asexual and... Are there other ways? For you to drink someone’s blood?”

“Ace?” Soyee heaves out a heavy sigh before continuing, “Oh my god, I was worried I might have scared you from every talking to me again, or that you’d run away with a picture of me and out me to the entire school.”

“I’d never-!”

“I know,” Soyee says, gently this time and her close-lipped smile is back. “I know that now, but you never know in a place like this.” Soyee takes a few more bites of her salad, licking excess dressing off her bottom lip Xiening slowly picks at her muffin, appetite suddenly leaving.

“To answer your question though, yeah, my favorite way of extracting blood is by making a couple needle pricks on the shoulder and sucking. Even just a prick on the finger is enough, really.” Xiening feels relief wash over her. “I don’t normally do that though, just because it’s hard to find a donor who has been tested for any blood diseases. I don’t wanna get sick, you know?”

Xiening nods in understanding before offering, “So… If I were to get my blood tested… would you maybe consider me? As a donor?”

Soyee seems to actually be considering it for a second. “So that’s why you came here I’m guessing? Because you wanted to try giving blood for this kind of thing, but maybe not like how it was done in the club?” Nod from Xiening. “If you’re really sure, that’d be amazing actually.” Smile from Soyee. “Like I said, it’s really hard to find people with the right paperwork, but if you’re willing to do that…”

“I’m willing!” Xiening half-way shouts, maybe a little too excited, and definitely too loud.

Soyee’s laugh is gracing their confined space yet again, and they trail off into conversation about university, China, Korea, friends, family, anything really. Xiening makes sure to make an appointment with her Korean physician for the next day.

⏃  ⏃  ⏃  ⏃

Needless to say, it was awkward finding a reason to want the blood test when Xiening asked her physician. After a couple seconds of mumbling, she finally just said “to be safe” and the physician interpreted it however they did, but at the end of the day she got her tests done. And that’s all that matters. The results took a couple days to process, but on the second day she was notified that she is free of any blood-borne illnesses or diseases. But now what?

Another couple days pass, and it’s Thursday before Xiening works up the courage to ask Soyee. Looking back down at the paper work on top of her desk in her tiny Seoul apartment, Xiening begins to nibble on her thumb, wondering if she should really go through with this. Her cellphone is already in her hand though, opened up to the contact that reads “Soyee”. It’s actually by mistake that she hits the call button, too zoned out to notice she even touched it. Really, she doesn’t even realize she’s made the call until a “hello” breaks through the dead silence of Xiening’s apartment.

She fumbles with her phone and nearly drops it while bringing it to her face and letting out a probably too loud “hello!” of her own.

Soyee lets out a breath laugh that only causes Xiening to blush, which is embarrassing even if no one else can see, before continuing on. “I was beginning to wonder if I had scared you off. It’s been nearly a week, you know?” Xiening knows. “Was there anything you needed in particular, or did you maybe just wanna talk? I’m down for either, I just finished my last class for the day.”

It’s now or never (not really, but it sure as hell feels like it right now), so Xiening takes a deep breath before messily conveying into the receiver, “I want to try being your donor. If you would like that.” Silence. “I have the paper work, too, if you wanted to see it.” Silence. Xiening’s stomach drops, beginning to wonder if she said something wrong, so she tries once more. “Hello? Soyee?”

“Yeah.” Something’s changed in Soyee’s voice, Xiening can tell, but she can’t tell what. “Yeah, I’d like that. Tomorrow night? Do you have a place you’d prefer to do it at?”

“We can do my apartment? If you would be okay with that?” Xiening asks, still completely unsure. “I can text you my building and apartment number after this?”

“Sounds great,” Soyee replies, and Xiening can hear the smile in her voice.

The two continue talking until Xiening’s tummy grumbles and she realizes that it’s 7:23 and she hasn’t eaten since lunch time and her phone is hot against her cheek.

“Hey, Soyee?”

“Yeah?”

Xiening bites her bottom lip. “Um… I need to eat dinner… Can I maybe talk to you later?”

“Oh my god, yeah, I didn’t even realize how late it got. I’m so sorry, go feed your tummy,” Soyee apologizes, and it just causes Xiening to giggle because. Cute.

They hang up, and Xiening makes her specialty dinner of instant rice and ramen, spiced up with a bit of kimchi on the side this time, before sitting down. She makes sure to type out her address for Soyee after cleaning up, not wanting to forget to do so. Even when she’s lying in bed after her shower, the butterflies never quite disappear.

⏃  ⏃  ⏃  ⏃

Xiening almost wishes that tomorrow would slow down so she had more time to prepare herself. She makes sure to clean herself up properly, because she doesn’t want the first encounter to be made awkward by body odor, but doesn’t apply fragrance because… Ew. No one wants perfume in their mouth. There’s not much cleaning to do either. She’s an exchange student, so most stuff beyond the necessities were left back in China. Should there be food? There’s fruit in the fridge, ready to eat, and maybe she could quickly whip something out if Soyee wanted something else? Oh god, what had she gotten herself into. Frick. Frack. Fruck.

Before Xiening can worry herself into a diagnosable stroke, she hears the tone ring, signaling someone being at her door. She checks who it is prior to opening the door, and to no one’s surprise, it’s Soyee. Xiening quickly propels herself towards the door and tries to fix herself up before opening it up to Soyee. She nearly second guesses her entire wardrobe choice, but it’s too late. Soyee’s already stepping past her apartment’s threshold.

“Hey, not to be like… rude or anything, but can we exchange paperwork first?” Soyee asks. And Xiening just blinks in response. “Like… we don’t have to do it right now. We can do it whenever. Just to you know… get it out of the way? So we don’t have to worry about it anymore?”

“Oh. Um. Yeah, yeah of course,” and Xiening goes off to bring back the paperwork provided by the health center. “Here it is,” Xiening mumbles and hands the thick stack to Soyee. Much to Xiening’s surprise, she’s handed a similar stack back.

“Why? What is this?” Xiening questions, sincerely curious why she’s looking at the same paperwork. She’s not gonna… taste Soyee is she? Hold the fuck up she never agreed to this-

“Oh, because I’ll be putting my mouth… on you. So my saliva will come in contact with your open…” wound “skin. You know, STD’s can be transmitted through saliva too, so… just so you know that you’re safe too.” A sound response, Xiening supposes.

One thing about the paperwork stands out though. “Jang… Sojin?”

“Huh?” Soyee looks up from Xiening’s own paperwork. “Ah, yeah my legal name is Jang Sojin. Soyee’s just my underground name so that people can’t like… stalk me. Or anything like that. You know, just protection stuff.” Sojin reaches into her wallet and pulls out a state issued ID. “Just if you didn’t trust me. I’m not lying to you.” Another smile that causes Xiening’s heart to do weird things once again graces Sojin’s pretty lips.

Xiening compares the ID to both the name on the paperwork and the picture to the Sojin sitting next to her on the couch. “Yes. That’s you, thank you,” and she hands the ID back to its rightful owner. “Did you need my passport? I can get it if you wanted me to…”

“No, that’s not necessary,” Sojin lets out one small laugh. “You told me your name from the beginning, I don’t think you’d be lying to me.”

The next few moments pass silently before both parties hand back the documents to their owner. Naturally, the two fall into conversation. Why did the other choose Ewha? When did Sojin start singing? When did Xiening start dancing? What kind of friends did Xiening leave behind to pursue dancing in Korea? What kind of music does Sojin want to sing? Eventually, Xiening shows Sojin an old performance she did with her crew back in China, and Sojin sings her own rendition of Modern Times by IU for Xiening.

After only God knows how long of just talking, Xiening and Sojin both end curled up on the couch, heads resting on the back. Sojin reaches forward and takes Xiening’s hand in her own, which really almost did give Xiening a stroke, but then Sojin starts speaking.

“We can start small, you know. Just a finger prick. I don’t want to push you too far.” Soyee speaks softly, turning Xiening’s palm up and gently caressing the length of Xiening’s finger.

Xiening fucking chokes while trying to breathe, and Sojin sits up, rubbing Xiening’s back to try and soothe her. “It doesn’t have to happen tonight if you’re not ready. You don’t have to do it at all, really. We don’t have to do this.” It’s meant to be reassuring, but Xiening’s spent way too much time thinking about this moment to give up now.

“No!” Xiening all but shouts. “I want to do it; I was just a little surprised. I definitely want to do it.” She nods, and Sojin just smiles softly and takes Xiening’s smaller hand back in her own.

It’s not for long though, because Sojin lets go to look through her purse. She pulls out a pouch and from the pouch pulls out alcohol pads, a lancet, and a band aid, placing them on the counter as they’re taken out. Sojin rips open the alcohol pad packet, grabs Xiening’s index finger, and gently wipes it off. Once sterilized, Sojin grabs the lancet and pricks Xiening’s finger. Xiening visibly winces, and Sojin looks up to meet her eyes.

“You okay?” Sojin asks, mild concern washing over her features. She knows it’s not that painful, but some people, especially first timers, are more tender than others.

Xiening nods her head. “It didn’t hurt. Just seeing it made it… real.”

Sojin hums in recognition and begins massaging Xiening’s hand, working the blood up to Xiening’s fingertip. She takes the older’s finger into her mouth, places it onto her tongue, and begins sucking. Sojin looks back up to catch Xiening’s gaze. Her mouth is parted, so when Sojin sucks just a little harder, she gasps, borderline moans really. Without realizing it, she brings up her free hand and pushes a piece of Sojin’s hair behind her ear. She’s about to retract her offending appendage, but Sojin captures the hand and keeps it in its place. Taking the hint, Xiening runs her fingers through Sojin’s hair, which causes her to close her eyes and let out a full-fledged moan. Well, at least now Xiening’s less embarrassed about her own reaction.

There’s really not much blood that comes out. Lancets aren’t really meant to let out a lot of blood, but Sojin keeps massaging. When absolutely no more is coming out, Sojin takes her tongue and runs it up Xiening’s finger. No one taught her how to swear in Korean, so Xiening lets out a very colorful curse in Cantonese.

“So? Good?” Sojin asks, what almost seems to be a smirk peeking out onto her mouth. \

“Um. Yeah, we should do that again at some point.” Xiening awkwardly lets out, still a bit dazed.

⏃  ⏃  ⏃  ⏃

A few months pass by like this. Encounters in each other’s dorm or apartment. Always begin with casual conversation about whatever comes to mind followed by blood. Sojin doesn’t really go to the club anymore. Nights begin to end with them cuddled under the same blanket watching horror movies (Sojin’s suggestions) and cheesy vampire movies (Xiening’s suggestions, because she’s a “fucking smartass” as Sojin would put it). Every once in a while Xiening gets Sojin to agree to a comedy, animation, or * **gasp** * a romance!

Sojin starts tutoring Xiening in Korean too, and helping her with any homework that’s particularly long, sometimes just reading it to her so she doesn’t get a headache trying to read the foreign characters for too long. In turn, Xiening helps Sojin with pronunciation whenever she decides to tackle a song in Mandarin. She doesn’t really speak Mandarin, but she’s better at trying to pronounce it than Sojin could ever hope to be. Much to the surprise of Sojin’s professors, her pronunciation abilities become infinitely better, no longer tripping over strange syllables.

Their weekends evolve into days out exploring the different areas of Seoul and other cities nearby. Sojin calls them “Korean culture tours”, but Xiening insists on calling them dates. Sojin never really challenges the notion.

They exchange passcodes to their dorm and apartment for both safety and convenience reasons. Really it was mostly because Xiening just liked Sojin’s bed better than her own, so sometimes after a particularly tiring day she falls asleep in Sojin’s bed. She makes up the excuse that it’s so Sojin can just wake her up by jumping into bed when she’s done with her own day, but if she was being honest it’s because the smell of Sojin helps her to destress and fall asleep. And sleeping in Sojin’s bed is like drowning in a sea of Sojin.

⏃  ⏃  ⏃  ⏃

The first week of Spring semester is particularly taxing. Xiening’s not sure if it’s because winter break just ended and so getting back into the swing of things is just hard or if her classes really just are that difficult this year. She really hopes it’s just the first. Either way, she finds her way back into Sojin’s dorm and face-plants on her bed. Sojin, ever so rudely, wakes her by diving straight into Xiening.

Xiening lets out an exasperated squawk and thrashes about, causing Sojin to laugh quite loudly at Xiening’s expense despite being nearly pushed off her own bed. Once Xiening calms down, Sojin curls up to Xiening and rests her chin on Xiening’s shoulder.

“Long day. Thirsty.” Paired with her best pout, that’s all Xiening needs before she’s taking off her shirt to allow Sojin easier access to her shoulder.

They had moved their primary location there a month or so ago. The incisions are never too deep, and with proper treatment, the scars fade into nothing. Sojin sterilizes the expanse of Xiening’s shoulder, takes out a disposable scalpel, and makes a few incisions. They’re accidentally a tad deeper than normal, but if Xiening notices a different, she doesn’t make it known.

Sojin latches on, determined to bruise the area with her pressure. She secretly loves leaving hickeys on Xiening, even though no one else will see them. Sojin just keeps sucking and sucking on Xiening’s soft skin, relishing in the contrast between the harsh metallic taste and smooth texture of Xiening’s skin. She continually massages the area, and is rewarded by a sudden surge of blood. A shiver runs down Xiening’s spine and she arched her back into Sojin and lets out the loudest groan Sojin’s ever heard come out of the smaller girl accompanied by labored breathing.

Sojin’s almost afraid she took too much blood until she turns Xiening to face her, completely blissed out with eyelids half closed and she looks down to where Xiening’s hand enters her pants. Oh. Oh fuck. Wait. Wait god damn it fucking shit.

She quickly sterilizes one more time to kill any bacteria, causing Xiening to flinch, before bandaging her. She turns Xiening to face her, looking much more coherent than a minute or so ago.

“Xiening, I’m going to need you to tell me what that was.” Sojin sounds more serious than Xiening’s ever heard, and Xiening sobers up immediately and feels a wave of panic. Once again, she acted on whatever the fuck it was her goddamned subconscious told her to do, and she might have actually messed it up this time.

“I… I, uh, I like to touch myself. Down there. And think about… this. When I’m by myself. I didn’t- I didn’t, uh, realize that I started doing it.” Xiening’s really struggling to explain herself, not even knowing the proper terms in Korean and she can feel the urge to cry. “I’m really sorry, I know I messed this up and-“

“No, it’s fine, people do that sometimes, it’s kind of normal actually, it’s just I thought you were asexual? I’m just confused.”

Xiening takes a moment, blinks, and then explains. “Yeah, I’m asexual. I don’t like sex with people. I like it with myself though. But I wouldn’t want you to touch me. In that area.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that was a thing.” Xiening nods in response. “Okay. Cool. That’s fine, just… give me warning next time? If you can? You nearly scared the shit out of me I thought I’d hurt you or something.”

Xiening cleans herself up in the bathroom after that before she says her goodbyes and heads back to her apartment. Feedings become just a little less frequent after that.

⏃  ⏃  ⏃  ⏃

Even though it’s less often, Xiening still finds herself at Sojin’s at least a couple days a week. Old-habits die hard, and cutting yourself off cold-turkey is difficult as shit, especially when your addiction is a pretty girl with long hair and a cute smile, even when it is a bit stained with blood. But Sojin never comes over to Xiening’s anymore. Never jumps onto the shorter girl anymore, and things almost become awkward again.

That’s why when Xiening walks into Sojin’s dorm and sees her sucking on another girl’s forearm, she runs for it. Sojin had immediately looked up and noticed a look of almost betrayal on Xiening’s face. She quickly cleaned up the donor she had over, patching her up and gently asking her to leave, because she had something to attend to.

As fast as courtesy allows her, Sojin’s running out the door, jacket on and phone out, trying to get in touch with Xiening. When she doesn’t answer, Sojin tries her apartment a few minutes away. She quickly enters her house code and kind of mildly freaks the fuck out when she realizes she’s not there. Sojin decides to wait a couple more minutes- hey, maybe she stopped by a store or something- but after an hour with no Xiening, she goes back out into the cool March air. She spends hours looking around Seoul, checking their favorite café, restaurant, movie theater, shopping center, even the clubs and convenience stores she knows Xiening would stop at, trying to call her ever ten minutes or so. Xiening might have been living here for a few months now, but Seoul’s still fucking huge and so easy to get lost in, even if you are fluent in Korean. Which Xiening is not.

Now, on the verge of tears because god damn it what if something happened to her, Sojin sits on a bench in front of their university and calls her one last time. By some fucking miracle, Xiening picks up.

“ _Hello_?” Sojin hears on the other end. Honestly, she wouldn’t even be surprised if she was hallucinating at this point to be honest.

“Hello? Where the fuck have you been?” She really can’t find it in her to be mad anymore. She’s cold, her feet hurt, and her muscles ache. She’s tired.

“ _Oh, I went to the convenience store for kimbap and ramen_.”

“For how long? I waited at your house for an hour right after you left.”

“ _Yeah, I got lost on the way home. I was walking around for almost… 2 hours? Then I decided to just get a taxi home. Figured I wouldn’t be able to find my way. It’s funny, I was actually in Myeongdeong_ -“

“Nothing about this is funny, Xiening. I’ve been out here for hours looking for you. Why haven’t you been answering the phone? Why didn’t you call me back?”

“ _My battery died. That’s why I wasn’t able to use a GPS to find my way back. I just turned it on when you called. I was about to call when I saw almost 50 missed calls from “Soyee”, but you called first, so…_ ”

“Where are you?”

“ _Huh?_ ”

“Just… where are you?”

“ _I’m at my apartment? Why?_ ”

“Don’t leave.” With that, Sojin ends the call and all but runs over Xiening’s box-like abode.

When Sojin gets there, she enters the passcode, nearly rips her shoes off her feet while stumbling inside, and runs over to Xiening on the couch, wrapping her arms around the older girl’s neck and burying her face into her hair. Until Xiening untangles herself from Xiening, that is.

“What are you doing here?” Xiening asks, tone flat and not even looking at Sojin, her eyes stuck to the news report playing on the television.

Sojin tries again, taking Xiening’s hand in her own. “I’ve spent hours looking for you.”

Xiening takes her hands out of Sojin’s. “Ew, you’re cold. So what you’ve spent hours looking for me? No one asked you to.”

“I was worried about you-“

“Really? You were worried about me? I couldn’t tell from the way you’ve been all but avoiding me and my house, going around putting your mouth on other girls. How was I supposed to know you would be worried, Sojin?”

What. No. No no no. “That’s not… I haven’t been ignoring you.”

“I never said you were.”

Sojin tries to touch Xiening’s shoulder. “Just let me explain…”

Xiening actually pushes her away, causing Sojin to just stare in shock. Xiening’s never pushed her away before. “How many times to I have to pull away before you stop trying to touch me? Just leave.”

“No,” Sojin says resolutely. “I’m going to stay here until you hear me out.” Xiening just ignores her.

Sojin grabs the remote on the side table and turns to TV off. “Listen to me, Xiening.” Xiening struggles to take the remote back, but Sojin lifts as high as she can, and Xiening’s way too short for this. So she gives up and just sits back down.

“Fine.” She grumbles out, arms crossed and string at the black TV.

“Okay… First, I wasn’t avoiding you. I just didn’t want things to become awkward after… well, you know…”

“Really? That worked out well,” Xiening huffs out.

“Yeah, I can see that.” Xiening turns away. “Second, there’s nothing between me and that girl. She’s just a donor. Nothing more, honestly.”

At this, Xiening finally turns back to look at Sojin. “Then why not me? You used to feed on me all the time, why didn’t you just ask _me_?”

The feeling of judgment radiating from Xiening’s eyes becomes too much, so she looks down at her lap, fingers fidgeting. “I was afraid…”

“Of what, Sojin?”

“That I’d… start to like you too much. More than you like me, and that I’d lose you completely.”

There’s a brief moment of silence, causing Sojin to look back up at Xiening’s face, which turns out to be void of emotion. “You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s a terrible excuse. You can’t honestly say you didn’t realize I like you. Romantically.”

Sojin shakes her head, “No… I really didn’t realize it… I mean, I knew you liked hanging out, and you obviously liked feedings, but I didn’t think you actually liked me or anything.”

“Wow, you’re dumber than you look.” Xiening picks up her phone and starts playing a game, waiting for Sojin to leave. After a few rounds, when Sojin’s still there staring at Xiening, she finally gives. “I gave you your chance to explain. What do you want now?”

“Another chance.”

“At what?”

Sojin just looks in her eyes for a second or two, then says, “You.”

“You’re going to have to be more specific. I’m not very good at Korean, you’re going to have to spell it out more clearly for me.”

“I want to date you. I want to be your girlfriend, and I want you to be mine.”

After a second or two of thinking, lips pursed, Xiening answers. “Alright, but on two conditions. One: don’t ignore me. Or even kind of ignore me.”

“I probably can’t promise you that. I’m pretty stupid you know.”

“Yeah, I do know. At least try though. I’ll yell at you if you do. Two: no other donors. I’m the only person you’re allowed to drink from.” Xiening looks almost embarrassed at the second command, turning away and blushing just a little bit. But it’s cute. Really cute.

“Done. No other donors. I don’t want any besides you, anyway.” Sojin takes this opportunity to envelop Xiening in a side hug, resting her head on Xiening’s shoulder.

Luckily, Xiening doesn’t pull away this time, only mutters something about Sojin still being cold and to take off her jacket already.

“Oh, can I see your phone by the way? I need to do something.” Sojin asks Xiening.

“Sure?” Xiening unlocks her phone and gives it to Sojin. When she gets it back, she sees Sojin’s contact name changed to “♡ Jjang Sojin ♡ My girlfriend ♡”. “What was wrong with it before?”

“It was ‘Soyee’. Really? Why would you keep that name… we need cute couple contact names anyway.”

Xiening laughs at her. “I thought you didn’t like cute things?”

“Yeah, that was before we started dating.” Sojin pouts, trying to be cute. When Xiening ignores her, she tries whining and pouting, anything to be disgustingly adorable. Horrendously out of character.

Pushing her face away, Xiening giggles, but is unable to fend for herself, so Sojin ends up tickling her neck with her nose. “Stop, stop, stop! I need to change my name on your phone too, this isn’t fair!”

Sojin begrudgingly pulls out her phone and hands it to Xiening, unlocked. The new and improved version reads “♡ Best Girlfriend Ever ♡ Liu Xiening ♡”.

“I love it!” Sojin’s laughing again, showing off her brilliant smile. “Ahhhh, it’s seriously so cute, I wish I could kiss you right now.”

“Then do it,” Xiening mumbles, looking down at her feet.

So Sojin does. She takes Xiening’s chin in her hand, and turns her to face herself. Xiening’s definitely blushing now if she wasn’t before, but it’s okay because Sojin probably is too. “Thank you for permission” is the last thing she says before pressing her lips against Xiening’s smaller ones. The kiss is short and chaste but it’s meaningful.

“Wanna watch Zootopia again?” Sojin suggests after she pulls away.

Xiening allows a small grin to peek through before responding. “I would like that.”

They finish the night cuddled under the same blanket, watching as a bunny and fox save a town from an evil sheep. They probably kiss a couple more times that night too. Either way, they’re both happy, and they finally officially have each other.  

⏃  ⏃  ⏃  ⏃

At the beginning of fall semester, Sojin moves in with Xiening.

**Author's Note:**

> I love Solly, it's my favorite couple. So I hope you enjoyed my self-indulgent fic.


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